Vehicles

If you forge a map for 4v4, you almost certainly don’t need to
include vehicles, though perhaps a ghost or mongoose might be fun. But
as you increase the sizes of the teams, you will want vehicles and more
powerful vehicles as well. You will need to consider the team size as
well as the purpose for the vehicles, and if you are seriously forging
for a playlist, follow the examples you find in the playlists, and take
advice from those that have studied the performance of the vehicles.

Vehicular Power

When we talk about the power of a vehicle, we are talking about its
aggregate power. This includes how much kill power it can produce and
how much kill power is necessary to take it down. The more powerful the
vehicle, the more counter measures the other team will require, or the
Game Play can become severely unbalanced. For example, in Halo 4, I was
advised not to include a Mantis unless the teams had at least six
players. (The only maps in a 5v5 playlist that I have seen with a Mantis is Ragnarok and Shatter.) You need to consider that the size of a team is a degree of
counter in and of itself, because they represent the number of players
that can fire upon a vehicle.

Vehicular power can also be measured in part by the number of players
necessary to operate the vehicle fully. Requiring more players is a
negative for overall survivability and offensive capabilities, because
you may not have a team mate immediately available to help you utilize a
vehicle.

The Warthog is a good example. You cannot shoot and drive at the same
time. You need a gunner to make the Warthog any kind of offensive
weapon (the tiny segment of the Halo population that is into splatters
is too small to factor in here). The scorpion is a good example of a one
person offensive weapon system, but a second player adds significantly
to its survivability.

Vehicular Purpose

The purpose of vehicles on your map is to provide teams with means to
interact with each other in ways that are beyond the typical infantry
weaponry, and thus increase the fun factor across a wider range of
players. Typically you see more vehicles with more players, so that
there are more ways of players to Engage each other, nothing more.

New strategies can be implemented with the introduction of vehicles.
Larger maps for larger teams offer more room for vehicles to execute new
strategies. And the type of vehicles you add determine how the Game
Play will enhance.

For example, Scorpions and Wraith have their greatest success as
defensive weapons as they help to control their team’s side of the map.
This isn’t to say that one cannot push forward with a Scorpion to
dominate the other team’s side of the map. But the point is that these
tanks are slow and more effective more often when kept back as defensive weapon systems.

The Gausshog, on the other hand, can deal an instant killer blow with
a single shot on target like a Scorpion, except it doesn’t produce the
same wide spread damaging shock wave that the Scorpion’s shell does. The
Gausshog is far more maneuverable than the Scorpion and can readily
lend itself to flanking the enemy with deadly precision and excessive
kill power. But like any Warthog, it can support flag capturing behind
the enemy base, run circles around pockets or other slow vehicles like
the Wraith or Scorpion, distract and duck behind cover, etc.

There is a vehicle for just about any kind of Game Play experience
and balance for a map. As a forger, you need to decide why you want a
vehicle, and then choose the vehicle that will provide you with the
desired Game Play for your map, while not creating other issues. One of
the concerns you need to address is how will people use the vehicles? As
you intend them or in ways that they feel are more advantageous?

Keep in mind that you cannot just drop a vehicle onto a map to
achieve the Game Play that vehicle offers most. The map must support the
Game Play as well. The vehicle must support the map, not usurp the map.
What I mean by this is the vehicle you place on the map should make the
strategies and the Paths that your map has to offer work well or even
better with the vehicle; the vehicle should not alter in significant
ways how the map plays other than adding the variety of Game Play that
the vehicle itself has to offer. Another way of looking at this is that
the vehicles should flow with the Geometry, not break the intent of the
Geometry.

Going Heavy

This last point is very important for heavy variants of large team
maps. Adding a tank to a map may break the map or alter the Game Play
significantly than the original version of the map that may have only
light vehicles on it. Clearly the term heavy originally came from the fact that the heavy class
of vehicles are added to a map. But you don’t always need a heavy
vehicle to make a heavy variant of a map. A more meaningful perspective
of a heavy variant is simply more vehicular Engagements – there are
simply more vehicle on vehicle encounters to be had and with a wider
variety of fire power to choose from. [1]

Vehicles are about encouraging a wider range of Engagements between
opponents. Going heavy is about encouraging more vehicular Engagements
with a wider range of vehicles to choose from still.

Anti-Vehicular Weapons

The laser is a classic example of an anti-vehicular weapon that has
no other real value. Yes, you can use it in shooting other players, but
it isn’t nearly as efficient as the sniper or DMR for taking down
infantry. One can say it really works wonderfully against any vehicle,
and that it is perhaps the best long range anti-vehicular weapon in
Halo. The laser is a prime example of a weapon you do not want on your
map unless you have a vehicle – in which case you do want it on your
map.

But also consider, again, the sandbox performance data of all
weapons. For Reach and Halo 4, the sniper is a good anti-vehicular
weapon, and as such adds some additional dynamics when vehicles are
added to the map. Unlike the laser, the sniper now has to ask himself if
he wants to save his sniper rounds for a scorpion or banshee (or yes,
even a Warthog), or does he want to share the love with his adversarial
infantry? The point is that the sniper can add additional decision
making burden upon a player’s strategy, and this in turn can help make
your map more interesting to play on.

Plasma grenades and plasma pistols are very powerful anti-vehicular
weapons. In Halo 4, these were a love fest amongst many Big Team Battle
players who would load up their personal load outs with both.

When planning to add vehicles, you need to consider the
anti-vehicular weapons you want to deploy as counter measures. There are
two groups of players you need to forge for – the vehicular lovers, and
the infantry lovers. The balance is not always easy to find, but you
need to forge your map for both groups if it is going to gain wide
spread acceptance and appreciation.

Summary

Vehicles add more Game Play dynamics and are necessary for large
teams, but you don’t want too many vehicles – not everyone should be in a
vehicle.

Widening the variety of vehicles with the correct choice of vehicles
is more important than having a heavy class vehicle for the sake of
having a heavy class vehicle.

The right vehicles should help the map work as it was originally intended, not alter it significantly.
Consider the various weapons that are anti-vehicular and what roles
they can serve, and what decisions players will encounter as a result.